Harley Davidson Cake

An old friend (as in from Elementary school) asked me to create a Harley Davidson cake for her boyfriend's surprise birthday party.  This is what I came up with...

Royal Icing flames and Fondant band and road

Fondant road and toy Harley

Fondant logo with icing letters

Harley picks in cupcakes

Royal Icing flame cupcakes

Just Because

As I was creating my company and this blog I realized that after 13+ years together, I had never decorated a cake for my husband.  I'd baked plenty of cookies, browines and cakes for him, but never put any effort into making them special.  So, here is the remedy...

Dark fudge chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing and white chocolate curls.

Winner's Cake - Half Birthday

If you weren't my Facebook friend a few weeks ago, you missed the contest I had asking for help naming my cake decorating company.  The response I received was overwhelming.  I thought I'd get 10 or 12 ideas, but over 70 names came in.  Many of the ideas were so amazing others had already taken them.  I narrowed to 7, then 3, and finally one name. 


Thanks go to a friend whose joke idea was:  "FinishYerDamnDinnerSoYouC​anEatAwesomeCake.com"

My response was:  "SkipDinner-StraightToCake.com"


After I really thought about it, the name Straight to Cake (So good, you'll skip dinner) was perfect, and luckily no one else was using it. 


The prize for coming up with the winning name (or in this case inspiring it)... an awesome cake.  The timing worked out that my friend's son was turning 4 1/2 and very excited about a half birthday.  So, I made him a half birthday cake using his favorite colors.  It's simple and silly, which I think is exactly what my friends were looking for. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes for Birthday 49B

Yesterday, at 4:45pm my husband called on his way home from work.  The conversation went something like this...

Him:  "Tomorrow is Billy's 50th birthday.  He calls it birthday 49B.  Think you can make him a cake, no wait, cupcakes?"
Me:  "Are you serious?  By tomorrow?  I have plans tonight."
Him:  "Yes, tomorrow morning before I leave for work." 
Me:  "If you pick up Chinese food, I'll make cupcakes.  Red Velvet.  I have to go preheat the oven.  Goodbye."

Into the kitchen I went, tore apart the pantry and a couple hours later I had 24 beautiful Red Velvet cupcakes with vanilla frosting, red sugar sprinkles and black icing drizzle.  Again, I took over 100 photos and realized I love photographing my cakes and cupcakes as much and I like creating them...which isn't odd since I'm a photographer and photography teacher.

Cheesecakes From Long Ago

Before I decorated cakes, I baked cheesecakes.  I love baking them because there is no flour...and quite frankly, I hate cooking/baking with flour.  It's so messy and such an odd texture on your skin.  I'm crazy, I know! 

I have about a million recipes for different types of cheesecakes.  My favorites are pumpkin and toffee.  I've made several others but only have photos of two - plain and mint chocolate.

If cheesecakes are something you're interested in, I would happily bake one for you.

P.S.  If you taste my pumpkin cheesecake, you'll never eat pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving again...and you just might skip dinner.

Plain cheesecake with real flower decorations

Mint chocolate cheesecake with fresh mint and chocolate drizzle

Apple and Pie Cupcakes

A while back my Mom bought me a couple of really cool cupcake decorating books.  Both were full of awesome ideas that were pretty simple to create.  I can't take credit for designing these cupcakes, but I did bake and decorate them based on the directions in the book. 

I was in the mood to decorate and we had a conference day at school.  The idea of sitting in meetings all day without treats was terrifying (sorry fellow art teachers, but you know meetings are more fun with snacks).  So I went through the books and thought apple cupcakes would be fun for teachers, and who doesn't love a good cherry or blueberry pie.  These cupcakes were fun to create and eat. 

My Dad's Birthday Cake

I've baked my Dad's birthday cakes for years, but I never decorated one.  My Dad has simple tastes - chocolate cake and vanilla frosting...nothing fancy.  Since I was delving more into the idea of doing this whole cake decorating company thing I thought I'd make a simple and mildly manly cake.  I stuck with my Dad's favorite but added raspberries, mint and chocolate drizzle.  This simple concept became a beautiful cake that ranks in my top faves!  And, I loved it so much I took about 100 pictures of it....

Last minute addition of chocolate drizzle on the plate really brought the whole cake together!

20th Anniversary Cake

I have this wonderful aunt and uncle that have done a lot of kind and generous things for me and my family.  When my aunt asked if I would make a cake for her 20th anniversary party, it was simple to say yes.  It really was the least I could do for them after they have given so much for me. 

This was the first cake I ever decorated for someone other than my own children...which added a whole new level of stress.  My aunt sent me a lot of pictures and ideas, and I sketched up a variation of what I thought I could accomplish with my skill set and time.  Designing for someone else was daunting, but I really enjoyed it... and it was probably the reason I decided to take this crazy leap into a cake decorating business.

This was also the largest cake I ever decorated.  But, because the design was simple it wasn't terribly time consuming.  I think it turned out really nice and proved that I could not only do this for other people, but that minor imperfections I see go unnoticed by others...making my stress level and perfectionist nature calm.